40 Year Family Owned: 1967 Pontiac GTO

Lately, I have been having thoughts of selling my first “real” project car, the one I was committed to seeing through to completion. That’s the ’87 BMW 325is I own (and rarely talk about). I’m deeply attached to it, which is what will probably keep it around for the long-term. The fact that this seller is letting go of a 1967 Pontiac GTO here on eBay that’s been in his family for 40 years bends my brain a bit, as I can’t imagine the level of attachment you must feel after knowing the car for four decades. It sports a hotted-up 428 motor and is available in Maryland, where it has received 21 bids with the reserve unmet.

Now, I suppose it could be a good yarn. I just watched an excellent video on YouTube featuring a character named Jack Diamond in a parody of what so many of our current TV personalities say and do to snatch a car out from an unsuspecting seller (hint: they tell stories and make the seller feel like they are giving their car to the next caretaker, when in reality it’s just going to be flipped for a profit). In the case of the seller, this could be a real-deal, family-owned car, or he could be pulling at the emotional side of our internal buying calculators in hopes of goading a potential buyer to pony up more cash. Who knows?

Regardless of intention, is this a good car? The floors are temporary, installed to keep vermin out – so we know they’re at least bad enough to warrant some fairly large patches. What we don’t know is how bad the floors truly are, but we do know that restoration work didn’t get much further than that: the seller claims the family friend that was helping with the restore passed away shortly after the project started, and he never had the time or money necessary to complete his dad’s GTO. Now, with bills mounting for his children’s education and the cost of storage space, the seller claims he is feeling the squeeze and needs to let the car go.

The GTO looks reasonable solid, though the roof section by the C-pillar could be worrisome. The trunk lid shows some signs of perforation but nothing catastrophic. According to the seller, the modified engine resulted in so much twist that a motor mount snapped on the first test drive; how much that story is worth in assigning a value to this car is up to the bidders. While the tale is a good one, is this GTO worth salivating over? This is the seller’s first listing on eBay, so it could be worth a call or a visit to get a feel for the car and the owner behind it.

As a once owner of 2 of these I’ll bet there is more rust than what is showing. I will bet you remove that back window and most of the window channel is rusted out causing the trunk floor to rot. This car will take a lot of $$$ and someone with metal & welding skills to restore and break even. I hope some one can bring it back to life just not me.

MY Favorite cars 66 and 67 GTO’s. I bought my first 66 in late 66 with 14, 000 miles loved it and of the thousands of muscle cars I have own I wish I had it back. Lot’s of memories in the car I was just 16, but it was my sixth car. My Dad was a Paint and body man and I learned cause I had to help after school from the time I was 8 or 9. Got pretty good at it too and even had a Paint and Body shop my self my last year in the Military I didn’t even have to go on Base except to pick up my military pay. Had a program called Project transition where if you career field in the service had no jobs as a civilian you worked off base to learn a trade, LOL well I need to learn more. Too me if it had a title I could build a car. I have took two wrecked cars cut them down the middle either way front to back or side to side and weld them together or cut out any panel and replace it, Piece of cake nothing too it.